Monday, May 3, 2010

Do Bulgarians dislike Danailov?

It's so unfortunate that some people can quickly associate a person's trashed personality to his nationality. Topalov and his unpopular manager, Silvio Danailov has been controversial in their own rights, I should say, and not necessarily reflects those of the nationality they represents. I do think that Danailov gives up moral and national pride just for the benefit of his client (that is Topalov) and himself, even if his own reputation and that of his client and his nationality gets tarnished. He doesn't seem to care about them anyway and Bulgarians should denounced that attitude. But anyway, Aussie GM Ian Rogers humor got the better of it and it is a clear cut article in the first place. It's very hard to argue with Rogers this time around. He may have hit the point, and I can be a good audience. But I was thinking, do many Bulgarians dislike Danailov?

In the 1970s and 80s Bulgarian chess was notorious for corruption; not just prearranging draws — a sin that has permeated the upper echelons of the chess world for decades — but also the organisation of complete tournaments designed to favour a particular player; for example a foreigner who had paid a fee to secure an International Master or Grandmaster result.

...A new generation of “clean hands” Bulgarian players has emerged over the past two decades, with Topalov leading the charge.

...However Danailov, the self-proclaimed “best manager in the chess world” was less universally admired.

Danailov had had an extended stay in Melbourne in the early 1990s but perhaps too much of it was spent hanging around the seedy Red Triangle snooker parlour, where chess players, snooker players and Underbelly-style characters mixed seamlessly. (On occasion this writer also visited the Red Triangle, where a future Grandmaster pulled your cappuccinos during the Friday night “blitz” tournament.